We went with a 10 foot tree this year. Had to trim the top a bit but it fits great. Best one yet! Even if our colored lights were all burned out so we had to make do with the white lights that we had and we probably could have used 3 more strands. But, still, best one yet!

So, the forecast was calling for a light dusting of snow Friday morning. I didn’t pay that much attention to it and rolled my eyes a bit when they called on Thursday night to say school was delayed school until 10:00 the next morning. I got up and went to the gym early and a few flakes were falling from the sky. It was pretty and I knew the kids would like it. When I got home I ran outside to get a picture of the house in snow as I didn’t know how long the snow would last.

I took this at 6:45am…

It started coming and didn’t stop! I then took this picture at 7:45am…

It snowed all morning long! I took this picture at 10:45am…

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! We ended up getting about 4.5 inches! The kids were obviously thrilled and couldn’t wait to get out and play in it. It was the perfect snow too – light and fluffy without much ice on the roads. Thankfully I had bought snow suits for the kids last year so we were all prepared! They geared up and headed out in to play!

I took about a million pictures of them building snowmen (4 in total!), playing with the neighborhood kids, throwing snowballs, and basically having the most fun ever. I’m just going to put all the pictures up so enjoy all these scenes from our fantastic snow day!

And that was just the morning fun! They went back out in the afternoon for more snow play! Don’t worry, I have pics of that too. 🙂

Much like last year, one of Maxwell’s school art pieces was chosen to hang in a local business! This year it was one of the banks right by our house and they had a nice little reception for everyone last week. I didn’t know what to expect but wanted everyone to look nice so we pulled out the collar shirts and a pretty dress! I obviously wanted a picture…

Yea, that seems about right. I did get this one though of everyone showing their teeth (or lack thereof!)

The best part was that Santa was there! We had no idea he was going to be there and I’m so glad we had put on our “fancy” clothes! 🙂 Samantha needed a little encouragement to get anywhere close to him…

But, as long as brothers were up there too, she was ok.

With the help of Robert, she did manage to tell him she wanted a high chair for her baby doll!

Maxwell said he’d rather write Santa a letter instead of telling him in person so he doesn’t forget! ha! I have no idea what Spencer asked for but I’m sure it was something remote controlled! Before we left, Santa called the boys back over to tell them something…

I asked them after what he said and he told them to be sure and not forget the cookies and milk!! Noted, Santa, noted.

So proud of my little artist and so glad we got a surprise visit with the big man himself!

On Saturday we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves after our strong showing hiking Whiteside and decided to tackle Scaly Mountain with the Woods. It was marked as “moderate”, the same as Whiteside so we thought we would be fine. We got off to a strong start…

But, this path was much more of a wooded trail and had big steps, tricky parts, and slippery rocks. Samantha was just having trouble. So, we did what we had to do! This was my view for much of the hike…

and when I wasn’t looking at that, I was doing this! ha!

The boys had no trouble at all and kept running up ahead and finding cool things to check out!

Because this trail was so wooded, we were pretty protected from all the wind and, when you’re carrying a 40 lb medicine ball on your back and hiking up a hill, you get pretty hot! We were peeling out of our layers and trying to figure out ways to hold everything and hold Samantha!

It was a 2 mile hike up and 2 mile hike down the mountain. We probably carried her 3 of those 4 miles! But, that’s ok. As always, it was totally worth it when we got to the top!

Spencer and his new best bud, Shadow…

It took about an hour and a half to get up the mountain and about 30 minutes to get done. A great hike! Not 2 minutes after getting in the car, Samantha looked like this…

it’s exhausting being carried! 🙂

That night we watched a disappointing Iron Bowl. Oh well, Roll Tide anyway! There’s always next year! Sunday we packed up and headed back to Birmingham, but had to stop for a nutritious breakfast first!

What a wonderful trip!! Good family time (thanks for everything Lulu and Granddaddy!), excellent food, and plenty of fresh air and adventure! I think we all felt about like Samantha on the drive home…